somebody dressed in dark clothes with their face wrapped walk right up to the store and try to get in with keys. reporter: that, he said, was carter trying to pull off another, bigger burglary. police just knew one day after killing ashlea and taking her keys, carter was trying to break into american eagle where this time, tens of thousands of dollars the black friday profits were in the safe. but the key didn t fit, because after ashlea was murdered, chris cravey changed the locks. i wasn t gonna take any chance on whether it be a deposit or them harming somebody else in the store. we needed to lock them out. reporter: the detectives pulled the surveillance video, and look at this carter, slipping away from the mall, having already changed from her sweat clothes into pink scrubs. had to be trying to fool potential trackers, they thought. this was after she would have spotted police talking to david in the parking lot.
Kill me. reporter: this is where carter s defense truly began. she told the jury she was a woman enslaved by her sadistic lover. he was tellin me what to drink, what to eat, um, and he made me have sex with him in the movie theater. reporter: and he had that gun, the glock, she said. used it like a threat and it scared her. did not feel comfortable with that weapon. reporter: she told the jury she was asleep at home when ashlea was being murdered. she didn t know where david had gone but somehow he wound up with a set of american eagle keys. gave me some gloves, told me to put them on, and then handed me a pair a set of american eagle keys. and he said go in and open the gate and bring me that fat ass deposit. reporter: and then she said he pulled out the glock. and he just pointed it at me.
i approached him. and i said, i know whose car y all are asking about. and he says, i just wanna make you aware that i have a former employee that did drive a infiniti g35. reporter: her name, he said, was carter. carter cervantez, that businesslike assistant manager who worked with ashlea so then i ask him, you know, what color is the g35 that she drove? and he mentions that it s a black one. reporter: what was that like, to hear that? well, it beats hearing the color red or white. reporter: and, by the way, chris told detective cedillo, carter left american eagle because she was fired. cedillo filed that away and sorted through the crime scene and talked to witnesses. and a day that began at 8:30 that morning didn t end until 1:00 am. did you get any sleep? no, sir, i didn t. reporter: the story about carter cervantez and her black infiniti was just bugging him. well, i m thinkin about the
The verdicts were some consolation for those who loved ashlea harris. i still miss her. she saw the best in everybody. even when you couldn t see it, she could see it. she had such a big heart. and this world is worse off, at least, mine is. reporter: both david mallory and carter cervantez received mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole. it wasn t enough for ashlea s mom and stepdad. reporter: you wanted to see the death penalty? death penalty was what i wanted, is what monica wanted. and but it wasn t to be. reporter: now they cling to memories of their ashlea. reporter: tell me about the last time you saw your daughter, physically, in person.
Are black people, black men? no, sir, i did not say that. reporter: but, said the prosecutor, that s exactly what she was suggesting. if she was gonna try and play that card, i was gonna make her spell it out. is ebonics a term that is commonly associated with african-americans in this country? i don t know where ebonics is commonly associated with. i associate it with a certain type of speech that i would associate with the word ghetto. reporter: but if she was hoping to play to some random juror s racial bias, she guessed wrong. the jury didn t believe it. not for a second. they found her guilty in less than two hours. as for david mallory, his attorneys argued he had nothing to do with the murder. he was involved with carter, yes, but not with any killing. the jury didn t buy that either rendering a guilty verdict in no time at all.